Enigma
by Tanya Lilac
Summary: Tenten was still a mystery to him, an enigma wrapped up in silken kisses and sensual skin. NejiTen. Oneshot. Limeish. AU.


**Disclaimer: **I do not, unfortunately, own Naruto or any affiliated characters.

Hmmm… I thought I'd take a break from _Intrigue _and write a lighter and somewhat pointless [emphasis on _pointless_ NejiTen. I need inspirationand hopefully this one might get my creative… energy flowing again. Another AU. Three cheers for pathetic fallacy!!!

John Mayer, as is Tristan Prettyman, is good to listen to when you're up at three in the morning.

**Enigma**

Tenten idly shuffled the papers around her desk, staring unseeingly at the coloured tabs as she flicked mindlessly through the pages. The sky outside was shifting quickly; a tumult of clouds laden with a myriad of raindrops was just waiting for her to step outside so it could just pour down on her- she knew it. The wind had started to howl half an hour ago, and the lightning and thunder had begun to roll in twenty minutes after- the time at which Tenten decided to stack her work neatly and stow away the various stationery items that had accumulated on her desk over the past week. Highlighters, paperclips and pens had been littered everywhere, along with the tattered remnants of first, second and sometimes third drafts crumpled and torn up in despair.

Hyuuga Neji watched the brunette on the other side of the room procrastinate and rearrange everything atop her desk with such a brutally meticulous care that, for a few moments, he wondered, not for the first time, if she had OCD. He had lost interest in the impending storm ten minutes ago when he noticed her reorganize her desk, including the positioning of everything within her seemingly innocuous jar of paintbrushes, scalpels and various sketching implements. He suppressed a smirk when she realised that one of her charcoal pencils had really been the eyeliner she'd been missing for the past week or so. Someone stopped in front of his open doorway, blocking his view of the woman.

"Hey, Neji, I was just wondering if you were free tonight. I'm going out with a few friends and I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come with…"

Whatever else Hana, the office secretary (well, political correctness labelled her an administrator or something of the sort) said fell on deaf ears and went unnoticed by Neji, still watching the brunette who looked like she was going to leave for the day. She'd been there early, like him, and had gone through all of her paperwork over the course of the ten hours; she was just delaying now.

"Hana," Neji cut through the girl's incessant chatter. "Go home." Hana, like always, was stung by his curtness and stormed out of the office.

Tenten sighed. The lightning flashes outside were becoming more frequent and the wind seemed more turbulent. If she waited any longer, she'd end up being caught in the rain anyway. She leaned over and picked up her bag, and began rummaging through its eclectic contents, looking for the one thing she had probably taken out that morning, thinking that it hadn't been going to rain. Biting her lip, Tenten tipped everything out of her bag and began to search more urgently. It was nearing sundown, and she didn't want to be caught out in a storm at night. Keys, wallet, phone, hair ties, bobby pins, makeup… more makeup… tissues, a few loose receipts… notepad… no umbrella!

A sudden rattle on her left told her that someone had taken something from her jar. With a strange feline grace, she reached out and grabbed the stranger by the wrist without even looking up. He hadn't flinched. That caught her interest. And that aftershave seemed more than familiar…

She finally looked up and saw a man smirking down at her. His eyes were such a pale shade of grey they were almost white; even his pupils seemed pale. It might have suggested a photosensitivity much keener than an albino's but it was quite the opposite. His vision was better than 20/20 and his eyes seemed to hold a lot more than the world around him. They held the knowledge of the secret workings of the mind- and every time she met his gaze, it felt like she could hide nothing from him.

His hair was long- a strange fashion that not many men could pull off with as much masculinity as he could- but its silken mahogany shine of health seemed to affirm his mostly hidden feminine side. Gulping, Tenten looked at the object that he had removed from the jar she had rearranged earlier. He held a black felt tip pen between his slender fingers- one of her more expensive items in the jar. He would know.

"'Evening, Tenten."

"Neji," Tenten replied evenly, taking the pen from his grasp and sliding it carefully back into its place in the jar.

He'd bought them for her. Not that he'd ever publicly admit it, of course. He held a very strict policy about professionalism and interoffice relationships. It was his cold and sometimes ruthless detachment to others that had made sure that he'd been promoted time and time again until he was where he became a partner of the firm. Of course, there was nothing in his strict guide to life that would prepare him for everything that Tenten was. So, he'd been forced to… bend the rules a bit more each time he saw her.

"Forgotten your umbrella?" Neji asked pleasantly.

Tenten stowed everything back into her bag quickly and stood up. "Why else would I be looking around in my bag?"

Neji gave her a look that said, "I don't know, maybe that eyeliner you'd left at my place a week ago."

The young woman flushed darkly in response and sighed as she shouldered her bag. And (just her ever improving luck), she'd thought that the day was going to be sunny throughout so she hadn't bothered to bring a jacket.

"Have a good weekend, Neji," Tenten said firmly, and left the building.

A wave of humidity hit her skin the moment she stepped out from behind the tinted glass panels. The smell of rain lingered everywhere, and suddenly, the rain began to fall and the wind picked up, blowing in the fat raindrops on an angle. The water splashed against the dusty cement at her feet, spraying up onto her legs. Tenten had a sudden urge to run out into the rain, but it was hardly the place. Besides, Neji was probably-

"You can't seriously be thinking of walking home in this without an umbrella or a jacket."

-right beside her. Tenten sighed and shivered as the air temperature dropped. The rain was falling heavily now, a torrential downpour that had come seemingly out of nowhere.

"Here, take this." Neji put his jacket over her shoulders to shield her from the raindrops and Tenten smiled.

"Thanks. It's warm." It was the truth; and it also smelled like him, but he didn't really need to know that.

A sleek, black car pulled up in front of the pair, and a middle aged man got out from the front seat with an open umbrella in one hand. He opened the door and stood aside as Neji approached the car. He stopped, and turned to face Tenten.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He asked. "If you'd like to stand in the rain all night, be my guest."

Tenten rolled her eyes, and the chauffeur smiled good naturedly at her as she clambered into the car after Neji. The driver shut the door behind her and they drove off a few moments later. Neji leaned forward and murmured a few words to his chauffeur, who smiled and nodded. Neji sat back beside Tenten, who was determined to keep looking out the window.

"You're nervous." Neji remarked.

Tenten looked over at him and pulled the jacket closer to her skin in a subconscious attempt to reassure herself that there was still something them apart. She tried to concentrate on the feel of the fabric but all she could think about was the way that it had looked on him at six in the morning. She'd been lying in his bed, and he'd been looking for her clothes after he got dressed. Impatient as ever, Tenten had taken delight in removing his clothing, if only to watch him dress again with that meticulous care of his.

"I'd rather be at home, in bed with a book and a cup of hot chocolate or something," she mumbled as she turned her attention to the scene outside the window. The traffic was horrendous; there'd been a car accident. It would probably be a long drive home.

"So when you say 'or something', can I assume that you mean in bed with-"

"You can't assume a thing, Neji!" Tenten snapped.

"Well, I-" Neji paused when his phone began to ring. It was in the inner pocket on the left side of Neji's jacket, and Tenten made no move to retrieve it. She met his eyes gamely, staring into those unfathomable depths. The phone was still ringing, and Neji unconsciously licked his lips as he reached towards her, still keeping their eyes locked. He opened the jacket, his hand ghosting over blouse as he extracted the phone. Without missing a beat, he flipped it open and answered the call, all the while maintaining eye contact with Tenten.

"Hyuuga Neji," he said quietly, reaching over to her again. Tenten instinctively tilted her head to the side as Neji's fingers stroked the soft skin on her cheek. Almost mesmerised by the hazed over look in her eyes, Neji began to neglect his phone call.

"Yes, I am still here. How bad is it?"

Tenten smiled as she moved closer to him. Words floated to her ears, but they were irrelevant. She breathed in deeply, smelling only the faint scent of Neji's aftershave, but it was the smell of his skin that made her blood rush. Tenten kissed the smooth skin on his neck once, smiling as she saw as him gulp. He tasted just as good as he smelled- just the way she remembered it.

"How long will it take to get the power back up?" Neji asked quietly, looking down at her. With a smirk (and only half listening to the person on the other line) he removed the ribbon that had kept her hair tied back in a loose bun. Her satiny hair pooled around her shoulders and Neji ran his fingers through her rich locks, the burning in his fingers finally satiated. It had only been a week since he had last run his fingers through her hair, but a week was more than long enough.

"I see. You and the rest of the house staff can take the evening off and come back in on Sunday." Tenten planted swift, sensual kisses from his Adam's apple up to his jaw, and he gulped again. "No, I meant Sunday. Not Saturday."

The person on the other end seemed rather stunned by the response, and the silence in the car seemed deafening. After a few more short sentences, Neji hung up and looked down at the brunette.

"What happened to not assuming anything?" He asked as she kissed his cheek. Her fingers wouldn't stay still, either, Neji noted with amusement.

"Nothing," Tenten smiled against his skin. Neji turned and tried to kiss her lips, but she playfully turned away.

"Tease," Neji smirked.

"You love it." Tenten cleared her throat and sat back in her seat again, crossing her legs as she looked at him expectantly. "So, what happened?"

"Power's out at my house." Neji shrugged.

"Yes, and what am I supposed to do about it?" Tenten asked primly, her back rigid. She'd seemed to have forgotten that she was still wearing Neji's jacket.

"Oh, I don't know, do the thing that a girlfriend would do and ask me if I'd like to spend the night."

"Girlfriend?" Tenten asked.

"Your hearing is impeccable."

"Well I'm afraid I'm not your girlfriend just yet, Hyuuga. So I'm afraid that you may have to spend the night by yourself in a hotel room." Tenten smiled impishly.

"You know, I think everyone that you work with has no idea what you're really like."

"And do you think that you know what I'm like?" Tenten asked, and Neji remained silent for the rest of the drive.

The car pulled up in front of Tenten's terrace house. The chauffer opened the door on Tenten's side and she stepped out quickly, Neji sliding out of the car after her, catching a few droplets of rain in his hair.

There were no lights on save for the headlights of the car, and Neji spoke quietly with his driver before joining Tenten outside her door.

"Thanks for the jacket, Neji." Tenten smiled as she began to remove it.

"You can keep it. It looks better on you." Neji paused and smirked. "Okay, really, it looks better on me- but I like the way that you look wearing it."

"Can I wear it into work on Monday?" Tenten asked playfully.

"If you did, I'd probably have to kill you." Neji stepped closer to her, and Tenten took a step backwards, feeling the wall against her back.

"Really?" Tenten asked as he leaned in, rubbing his cheek against hers as his lips brushed the soft skin of her collarbone.

"Really." Neji breathed, and Tenten could feel the warmth of his breaths spreading across her neck.

"I'd like to see you try." Tenten countered, putting her arms around his neck. She felt his hands on her hips and she leaned into his body. It was like this, all the time. It was never a complete surrender between them; just a momentary compromise, always to be turned against the other in a never ending struggle for dominance.

Finally, she let him kiss her on the lips like he'd been dying to since last week. Like she'd been dying to feel since last week. There was nothing soft about the way he was kissing her; it was all passion, fire and roughness that mingled with the smoothness of his lips and the taste of him and the smell of him and it was really just too much to handle and she couldn't breathe anymore because she was drowning in him and suddenly… his warmth was gone. Panting, Tenten rested her forehead on his shoulder, barely registering the car as it drove off. She was coming undone and he knew it.

Neji smirked in the darkness as she pressed the keys into his hands; he'd work it out soon enough as she caught her breath. He walked to the door and turned back slightly, seeing Tenten out of the corner of his eye. She was leaning back against the wall, one leg straight and the other bent, with her foot resting against the wall. Her hair had tangled; its rich curls and waves framed her face. Her eyes were shining brilliantly against the shadow the rain cast on her face in the glare of the street lamp and her lips were slightly parted, just begging him to capture them again. He was mesmerised and she knew it.

After deftly manipulating the lock, Neji opened the door and walked inside, holding the door open for Tenten. He locked it behind them and slipped out of his shoes. The flat was old like the others around it, but renovated recently in an attempt to improve the area. It had a cosy, chic feel to it that was fitting for the brunette. It had a sunken lounge (which boasted a very comfortable looking sofa and a coffee table covered with "coffee-table-books") and a new kitchen that combined classic timber with subtle splashes of frosted aluminium. And tucked away in clever niches and nooks were memories of a life she had yet to tell him about.

"So," he said. "This is where you live."

"Yes," she replied irritably. "And two minutes ago, you couldn't have cared less."

He pulled her back into his arms as he captured her lips swiftly, playfully. Tenten was still a mystery to him; an enigma wrapped up in silken kisses and sensual skin. She was unwilling to let him in, in spite of her carefree nature. She was his addiction- dark, sensuous and utterly irresistible. He kissed her again, seductive and smooth, languorously exploring the curve of her mouth. They were moving together now, taking step after step towards the stairs. Her hands were working deftly, shedding his tie with ease, and then started working on his shirt, button by button. She was torturing him, and she knew it. Tenten smiled against his kisses as he pushed her up against a wall again, growling possessively.

"A week is far too long," she murmured huskily as she wrapped her leg around his. Neji caressed the smooth expanse of skin and she shivered, feverish beneath his touch.

He pressed his forehead against hers, panting. "Tell me about it," he muttered back, and Tenten laughed before he kissed her again.

Later that night, as they lay beneath the delicate sheets on Tenten's bed, they would listen to the rain pattering gently on the skylight above them. Bathed in the euphoria of their afterglow, Tenten would smile and Neji would kiss her again. It wasn't enough for him just yet; a relationship where he was left standing at the door… but she'd give him the keys sooner or later.


End file.
